Buthidaung – The administrator of ‘Pharung Chaung’ village in Buthidaung Township arbitrarily beat and humiliated a Rohingya youth in public on Sunday.

The village administrator was also said to have extorted money from the victim identified to be Mohammed Taher Sultan, 25, hails from ‘Dudan 1’ hamlet of Pharung Chaung’ village tract.

“The victim belongs to a poor family and sells bamboo in the stall set up in front of his home which opposite to a Rakhine residence at the other side of the road.

On January 11, the village administrator, a Rakhine extremist named Maung Than Htay, extorted Kyat 20,000 from him alleging him of illegally selling bamboos by the road. On January 31, he again demanded ransom from the victim on pretext of a complaint lodged against him by a Rakhine neighbour.

Since the victim refused to pay him (the administrator) ransom money again, he starting beating him up in public and also tore of his (the victim’s) clothes,” said an eyewitness.

The administrator of ‘Pharung Chaung’ village, Maun Than Htay, is a Rakhine (Magh) Buddhist extremist notorious for oppressing the local Rohingyas who form the majority in the village.

Maungdaw – The fire, believed to have started from the kitchen accidentally ignited, razed at least 26 homes at ‘Taman Thar’ village in northern Maungdaw around 12:45 PM yesterday.

The 26 houses razed hosted 41 (Rohingya) families and were said to be linked-houses. The fire that flamed for 2 hours displaced 208 people internally, where 83 were men and 125 were women. Furthermore, it also destroyed the paddy (rice) stored in the houses and damaged all the household properties

“The fire reportedly flamed bigger due to the strong winds. While the villagers were trying to extinguish the fire, the Military and the Border Guard Police (BGP) from the camps in the (Taman Thar) village also arrived and extended their hands to the villagers.

While extinguishing the fire, some villages got injuries.

The Military and the BGP listed the number of the homes destroyed in the fire and encouraged the people affected not to be saddened due to the incident. The BGP donated 2100 bamboos to set up temporary tents for the displaced people. They also promised to provide the villagers with rations.

International NGOs like Malteser arrived at the village and gave treatments to the people injured. The UNHCR Staffs listed the number of the people displaced by the fire. The officers from MSF (AZG) said that they would give medical treatments to the people once they get permission from the authorities,” said a local Rohingya in the village.

It seems since ‘Taman Thar’ village is 32 miles far to the northern from the downtown of Maungdaw, the Fire Brigade could to come to the village to extinguish the fire.

Reports said that there was no single member in the home when the fire broke out from its kitchen. All family members went out to their farms after having lunch.

The head of the household (from which fire began) has gone into hiding since then.